First and foremost, this is not a fire Mike McCarthy thread. Please do no start with that. It's a discussion about accountability of the coach.
Second, this is also not a debate about Jerry. Same thing. It's not needed in this thread. This is about McCarthy, and accountability.
—
Earlier this year, McCarthy was credited for turning the team around after a harsh loss in the opener. I personally gave him credit, because he deserved it. While the Cowboys were far from perfect, he took a team that looked without an identity in week 1 and turned them into a winner in week 2 and several straight after that, propelling the Cowboys into the playoff picture early in the season, which is just now about half-way over.
How did he do it?
Well, according to his press conferences, he got back to the formula of running the ball x amount of times?
Why'd he do that?
Well, because when the Cowboys had done that before, they want the vast amount of their games. Like, over 95 percent of them, I want to say.
So why wouldn't you do that going into Green Bay?
Well, if you ask big Mike, he values "relationships." So, I kind of have a hunch that McCarthy subconsciously, and hopefully not consciously, allowed the Cowboys to slack off during the bye and not really focus on game-planning because he was busy vacationing, along with the team, while the Cowboys could have been focusing on winning, which would have told me that Mike really wanted to win, even if he lost.
But his whole VERY VERY VERY schtick after the game rubs me the wrong way.
Why?
Because he's blaming the players when this game is 100 percent on him. If we're all supposed to be giving him credit for the things he himself says he deserves credit for, then we should be giving him the blame for NOT sticking to the winning formula because that's where the blame lies. That is, if you listen to his own words during press conferences, because I listen to those to get a feel for what's going on with the team. And Mike has been subtly pandering the press for credit by telling them he made the executive decision of going back to the old formula, and away from the option routes, etcetera — with the goal of winning.
Well, they lost.
In any case, when he says "this group of guys can do it" he's deflecting blame from himself for the team's loss.
Why is he doing that?
Well, if you ask me, it's because it was his old team, Green Bay.
So, this isn't about Kellen Moore. The issue is that Kellen Moore and McCarthy passed way too much, and got away from the winning formula of running the ball. In the end, that's not on Moore. That's on McCarthy for not doing his job to rein in Moore and stick to the game plan.
Afterall, that's what he stood up to the institution early on and deserved credit for, if you asked him during a press conference.
So, let's not lay this on the players, or anyone else but McCarthy, because this one is all on him.
